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BP 413 Kamma & its Fruit URW Palladio PDF.doc
Kamma and
its Fruit
Essays edited by
Nyanaponika Thera
Buddhist Publication Society
Kandy
1
Sri Lanka
Buddhist Publication Society
P.O. Box 61
54, Sangharaja Mawatha
Kandy, Sri Lanka
First edition 1975
Second edition 1990
Reprinted 2002
Copyright © 1975, 1990, 2001 Buddhist Publication Society
ISBN 955-24-0224–7
National Library of Sri Lanka –
Cataloguing–in–Publication Data
Kamma and its fruit – 3rd edition / edited by
Nyanaponika Thera– Kandy: Buddhist Publication
Society, 2001
vi, 116P.; cm.
ISBN 955–24–0224–7
i. 294.3422 DDC 21 ii. Nyanaponika Thera, ed.
1. Buddhism – Doctrines
2. Kamma
ISBN 955-24-0224–7
BP 413
2
Contents
Action
Francis Story
Kamma and Causality
Kamma and Freedom
Collective Karma
Francis Story 75
About the Contributors
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Kamma and its Fruit
Kamma—or, in its Sanskrit form, karma—is the Buddhist conception of action as a
force which shapes and transforms human destiny. Often misunderstood as an
occult power or as an inescapable fate, kamma as taught by the Buddha is in
actuality nothing other than our own will or volition coming to expression in
concrete action. The Buddhist doctrine of kamma thus places ultimate
responsibility for human destiny in our own hands. It reveals to us how our
ethical choices and actions can become either a cause of pain and bondage or a
means to spiritual freedom.
In this book, five practising Buddhists, all with modern backgrounds, offer their
reflections on the significance of kamma and its relations to ethics, spiritual
practice, and philosophical understanding.
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ACTION
Francis Story
Kamma is simply action, a “deed.” Actions are performed in three ways: by
body, mind and speech. Every action of importance is performed because there is
desire for a result; it has an aim, an objective. One wishes for something specific to
happen as the result of it. This desire, no matter how mild it may be, is a form of
craving. It expresses the thirst (taóhá) for existence and for action. To exist is to
act, on one level or another. Organic existence consists of chemical action;
psychic existence consists of mental action. So existence and action are
inseparable.
But some actions, those in which mind is involved, are bound to have
intention. This is expressed by the Pali word cetaná , volition, which is one of the
mental properties. There is another word, chanda, which stands for wishing,
desiring a result. These words all express some kind of desire. And some form of
desire is behind practically every activity of life. Therefore “to live” and “to
desire” are one and the same thing. (There is one ultimate exception to this
statement, which we shall come to later. It is that of the Arahat.)
An action (kamma) is morally unwholesome when it is motivated by the forms
of craving that are associated with greed, hatred and delusion (lobha, dosa, moha).
It is morally wholesome (in ordinary language, good) when it is motivated by the
opposite factors, disinterestedness (greedlessness), amity and wisdom. An act so
motivated is prompted by “intention” rather than “craving.” Yet in every act of
craving, intention is included. It is that which gives direction and form to the
deed.
Now, each deed performed with intention is a creative act. By reason of the will
behind it, it constitutes a force. It is a force analogous to the other great unseen,
yet physical, forces that move the universe. By our thoughts, words and deeds
we create our world from moment to moment in the endless process of change.
We also create our “selves.” That is to say, we mould our changing personality as
we go along by the accumulation of such thoughts, words and deeds. It is the
accretion of these, and the preponderance of one kind over another, that
determines what we shall become, in this life and in subsequent ones.
In thus creating our personality, we create also the conditions in which it
functions. In other words, we create also the kind of world we are to live in. The
mind, therefore, is master of the world. As a man’ s mind is, so is his cosmos.
Kamma, then, as the product of the mind, is the true and only real force in the
life-continuum, the flux of coming-to-be. From this we come to understand that it
is the residue of mental force which from the point of death kindles a new birth.
It is the only actual link between one life (“reincarnation”) and another. And
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